LOS ANGELES – March 29, 2010 – Deadline.com is now covering the television industry full-time. Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC)’s Jay Penske and Deadline.com’s Nikki Finke today announced the hiring of Nellie Andreeva, The Hollywood Reporter TV Editor who is one of the beat’s most preeminent and prolific journalists. Within the next 2 weeks, she will become the TV Editor of Deadline.com and will lead TV coverage for all of the Deadline.com verticals. Andreeva intends to continue to deliver high-profile scoops and on-the-spot analysis about the small screen’s new programs, pilot development, cast changes, business deals and industry trends that will further make Deadline.com the “must read” for influencers and leaders in global entertainment and media.

With the hiring of top journalism talents Mike Fleming to run Deadline|NewYork, and Tim Adler to run Deadline|London, and now Nellie Andreeva to run Deadline|TV, Deadline.com completes its second phase of editorial expansion. Andreeva will report to Finke, who remains Deadline.com’s general manager and editor in chief, and editor and founder of Deadline|Hollywood. All of the growing staff are committed to Deadline.com’s tradition of shattering the mold of traditional reporting and creating a new paradigm for delivering original content with New Media immediacy. Hiring The Hollywood Reporter‘s marquee TV journalist demonstrates MMC’s commitment to rapid growth as one of the most dynamic companies to watch in the digital media arena.

“We are excited and honored that Nellie has joined our talented team at Deadline.com — and with this significant hire, we further accelerate our mission to become the finest source on the business of entertainment and media,” commented Jay Penske, the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of MMC.

Said Finke: “We wanted Deadline to provide full-time coverage of the TV industry but first needed to find the right TV beat journalist to do it. Lots of reporters cover the small screen’s consumer news, but few get in-depth and behind-the-scenes of the networks and studios and talent. After our search started, TV insiders quickly made it clear that our first choice had to be one of my fiercest competitors, Nellie Andreeva, who daily dominates The Hollywood Reporter‘s front page with her scoops. We didn’t know each other personally, so when I first made contact with her by email, Nellie thought someone was playing a prank on her! I’m now her biggest admirer because she is tough and talented, my favorite combination in a journalist.”

Said Andreeva: ””Ten years ago, The Hollywood Reporter took a chance on me, a reporter from Bulgaria with zero Hollywood connections. For the last decade, it gave me the best editors, mentors, and friends I could’ve asked for. I probably never would have left if it weren’t for such a big new opportunity.”

Los Angeles-based Nellie Andreeva has been the TV Editor for The Hollywood Reporter online and print edition since June 2004 and has moderated panels and conducted Q&As at NATPE and the Paley Center for Media. She joined the daily trade paper in 2000 as a TV reporter. Before that, she worked as a reporter at Investor’s Business Daily where she tracked both television and radio, and interned as a science news reporter for Business Week magazine after receiving a fellowship through the American Association for the Advancement in Science while a master’s degree candidate in the Department of Physics at the University of Maine. But her interest in the television industry extends back to her homeland of Bulgaria where she became a journalist and then spent six years as a producer, writer, and director for Bulgarian National Television. Her work helming a popular skit comedy show akin to Saturday Night Live earned her two awards, including the Bulgarian equivalent of an Emmy. Andreeva has masters degrees in journalism and physics from the University of Sofia in Bulgaria.

About Deadline.com
Deadline.com first began in March 2006 as Deadline Hollywood Daily, the 24/7 Internet version of Nikki Finke's long-running LA Weekly “Deadline Hollywood” print column. Her site was purchased by Mail.com (MMC) on June 23, 2009 and rebranded Deadline.com which then launched Deadline|New York and Deadline|London and now Deadline|TV. Influential industry leaders and key decision-makers across many fields track Deadline.com many times a day. Deadline.com's breaking news scoops regularly receive more reader comments than all of the entertainment industry news sites combined.

Nikki Finke's journalism career has included years as an AP foreign correspondent in Moscow and London, Newsweek correspondent in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, and Los Angeles Times staff writer covering entertainment and features. From 1995 through 2000, she was West Coast Editor and Hollywood columnist first for the New York Observer and then New York Magazine. She joined LA Weekly as its Hollywood business columnist in 2002. Her many reporting honors include Entertainment Journalist Of The Year in the National Entertainment Journalism Awards, one of "100 Leaders You Can Learn From On Twitter" in the journalists category, one of New Media’s ‘Top 10 Entertainment Game Changers’ by The Huffington Post, and one of Time Magazine’s ”Time 100” finalists. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and Esquire.

About Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC)
MMC is a leading digital media company founded by CEO Jay Penske in 2004. The company owns and operates Mail.com, a global multi-media publishing platform. In addition, MMC owns a unique portfolio of lifestyle brands that provide the web's best original content in categories including entertainment, automotive, breaking news, media, finance, health, beauty, style and sports. Mail.com, HollywoodLife.com, OnCars.com, Deadline.com, Movieline.com, Fan.com, are all part of the MMC digital portfolio. For more information about MMC, please visit http://corp.mail.com.
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17 Comments

Nellie Andreeva is one of the hardest working reporters I’ve ever seen. And she is a gem of a person. What a great hire!

Anita Busch • on Mar 29, 2010 3:03 pm

And Nikki, I know you have great sources in TV, but give Nellie room and watch how brightly she shines.

JP • on Mar 29, 2010 3:03 pm

someone’s going to be “The Hollywood Reporter’s” Editor in Chief if they like it or not

Bring Me Some TV Scoops • on Mar 29, 2010 3:03 pm

This is incredible news. The one part of your coverage that, frankly, needed some help. Now this will definitely be the first place I go every morning for news. (Okay, it already is — but now it is EVEN more.) Congrats Nikki on kicking everyone’s ass.

michael • on Mar 29, 2010 3:03 pm

Awesome!

Watcher • on Mar 29, 2010 3:03 pm

Meh.

I have read this site for quite a while. I don’t know from Adam who this fabulous person is. But it seems to me that Deadline is getting top-heavy. I guess those 15 minutes of fame will happen and then Deadline will be crushed under the weight of its own PR.

Largely, I think I’m blown away by the fact of how big this is becoming. Never a good thing in my experience.

I am sure you all will make big bucks.

elliott • on Mar 29, 2010 3:03 pm

they have 4 people working there… it’s hardly General Motors.

Sweet Mister • on Mar 29, 2010 3:03 pm

Great news. Does anyone read the trades any more? I cancelled my subs.

nickya • on Mar 29, 2010 3:03 pm

Nellie is one of the most gifted, intrepid and true journalists covering television today. I have so enjoyed working with her over the past years. I’m certain i speak for many of my colleagues. i wish i could celebrate this transitional moment for her–but regretttably i cannot. Undoubtedly Nellie and the amazing Mike Fleming will attempt to add their special brand of grace and dignity to Deadline, but the stench of Nikki Finke will always prevail and cast a giant shadow on their credibility and reputations. I’m lighting a candle tonight–and wearing black.

eyeknow • on Mar 29, 2010 3:03 pm

Nellie…are you nuts?

Jennifer Lewis • on Mar 29, 2010 3:03 pm

So let me get this straight: You trash the trades only to become the trades? You must realize this may backfire. Again, readers flocked to you because you were snarky and had an opinion. Now you have hired dry, of no opinion as “I might offend someone, God forbid” Trade writers and when you’re not posting a press release your staff is writing one. You state Fleming is covering NY yet every item with his byline is LA. Now you’ve hired someone to cover TV? So the rest of you will only cover film? Your blog had a voice and a tone that resonated with your audience, and somewhere along the line you lost sight of that.

Attagal • on Mar 29, 2010 3:03 pm

Wow, that’s a great get. Class act, on top of her game. Sad to see the trades falling apart, but you can’t stand in the way of progress as they say. And to “Watcher” from earlier comments – if you don’t know who Nellie Andreeva is and you’re in the TV industry even as a script toting slug, you need to be purged from whatever company you latched onto asap.

Whee! • on Mar 29, 2010 3:03 pm

Ha ha! Tell ’em sister!

Karl Gibson • on Mar 29, 2010 3:03 pm

Terrific news to read! I am so happy for Nellie and wish her the best. She’s worked hard, she’s worked late and she cares about the beat. Congratulations!

What an incredible run it has been watching DHD rise to promonenece on a brilliantly timed wave of new and social media prominence. This may or may not have been the strategic objective from day one, but regardless, a truly impressive stroke of journalism business savvy amidst an otherwise stale and stodgy model that will now need to dramatically adjust it’s imperatives just to catch up to DHDs dust. Really quite impressive Ms Finke and kudos to those involved in pulling together this little media engine that could and would and now will and is.